My friend Jane was lamenting the fact that her 10-year-old daughter would be coming home from camp early.
Jane had finally given in; she couldn’t take any more sobbing phone calls from her daughter about how awful camp was and how the girls in the cabin were bothering and mistreating her.
My friend was confused and frustrated that her daughter’s experience of camp, with all its remarkable activities, gorgeous setting, and kind people, could indeed be so negative. But, alas, such was the report coming from Vermont.
I started hearing similar reports from other parents. Their kids also wanted to come home from camp and were struggling with anxiety, relational difficulties, and other emotional issues. I checked in with a friend who’s the director of a popular summer camp, and she confirmed that at her camp, and many other camps, more kids this summer were leaving camp or talking about leaving than she’d seen in her decades as a camp director….